Diamanti sparkles in Guangzhou comeback

Guangzhou Evergrande’s Zheng Zhi, left, shoots against Melbourne Victory in their AFC Champions League Group G match in Guangzhou, China, on Wednesday.

Photo: AFP

New signing Alessandro Diamanti starred with two magical strikes as AFC Champions League titleholders Guangzhou Evergrande fought back from two goals down to beat Melbourne Victory 4-2 on Wednesday.

In a dream debut, the 30-year-old Italy international inspired a rousing second-half comeback as the Marcello Lippi-coached Chinese champions opened their trophy defense in style at a packed Tianhe Stadium.

First-half goals from Pablo Contreras and Leigh Broxham threatened a huge upset in Group G, but after the break Guangzhou scored four goals in 26 minutes through Huang Bowen, Elkeson and Diamanti.

Victory got their opener on 36 minutes when a Jesse Makarounas free-kick from the left was poorly dealt with, Kosta Barbarouses firing in a shot and Contreras tapping in the rebound.

The goal stunned Guangzhou and their massed ranks of red-clad fans, but there was worse to come just five minutes later again from the delivery of Makarounas, also from the left, but this time from a corner.

Again the high ball was not cleared and Broxham was perfectly placed to lash home a superbly controlled volley from the edge of the penalty area to give the visitors a shock 2-0 lead at halftime.

Diamanti had a hand in Guangzhou’s first goal when he fed Luo Jiacheng for a cross which was emphatically volleyed into the net by Huang.

The Italian made it 2-2 and Brazilian striker Elkeson put the champions 3-2 ahead when he brilliantly controlled a long, high ball from the halfway line on his chest and his low shot went through the legs of Nicholas Ansell.

Diamanti made sure of the win when he shimmied past Contreras and prodded a pin-point strike inside the far post.

Earlier on Wednesday, Australian debutants Western Sydney Wanderers had a harsh welcome to the competition when they threw away an early lead to lose 3-1 at home to 2012 champions Ulsan Hyundai.

The Wanderers scored after just 42 seconds at home through Brendon Santalab, but the South Koreans punished defensive mistakes to score through Kim Shin-wook, Ko Chang-hyun and Kang Min-soo.

Also in Group H, Brazilian midfielder Renato scored from a first-half free-kick as Japan’s Kawasaki Frontale kick-started their campaign with a 1-0 home win over Guizhou Renhe of China.

In the other Group G game, 2006 winners Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors scored three times in 10 second-half minutes as they beat Japan’s Yokohama F Marinos 3-0.

Despite the dismissal of Ali Karimi in the 60th minute after he collected his second yellow card of the match, Iran’s Tractor Sazi netted the Group C game’s only goal through Ansarifard, who produced a fine solo run from inside the Al-Ittihad half and slotted the ball into the bottom right-hand corner.

Former Qatari champions Lekhwiya SC crashed to a 2-1 defeat against Al Ain with Diaky Ibrahim and Asamoah Gyan finding the target either side of the break. Vladimir Weiss scored the only goal for Lekhwiya.

Former Asian Player of the Year Khalfan Ibrahim put the hosts ahead in the 18th minute, but Mehdi Sharifi equalized for Sepahan in the 78th.

However, a Nadir Belhadj strike off an Ibrahim pass saw Al Sadd nose ahead in the 83rd minute and Brazilian Rodrigo Tabata put the issue beyond doubt for the defending Qatar Stars League champions with a stoppage-time effort.